I LOVE U TOO
CH2
Phoebe lay on the couch waiting for the warm healing feeling to absorb her. She wanted desperately for something good to hang onto. During the past week she had been kidnapped, raped and shot (attempted murder). She had been hospitalized for days. She remembered the terrified feeling she had gotten every night when she nurse on night shift would enter her hospital room and turn off the lights, she remembered being scared that Charlie would return in her sleep. She had never been afraid of the dark until she had been kidnapped. She remembered the hours in complete darkness, in that small musty room and in that small bed. She remembered the feeling of inevitability, knowing that she would be raped, thinking she would be murdered. She remembered the hours after he entered the room, the blackness in which she had been beaten and raped without mercy. The darkness, the darkness. Phoebe's thought were interrupted by warmth she knew all to well. "Leo…" she whispered as her body was healed. All to soon the warmth ended and she was left once again with he empty paranoia that had been flooding her.
"Yes?" he asked smiling down on her. Phoebe opened her eyes to see that Piper, Prue and Cole were there also.
"Thank you." She said sitting up and looking around, "Um, I'm going to go to my room and get some rest." She got up and headed for the stairs but turned at the last minute, " Have you guys heard anything about Charlie?" she asked tiredly. Cole, Prue, Piper and Leo all seemed not to hear her as they stared at the ground.
"Phoebe…" Prue finally said, "Maybe you should rest, we'll talk about him when you're ready." Phoebe turned and headed back to the couch, sitting down.
"I'm ready." She said angrily. "It's only a trial, it's not like they're letting him free." She laughed nervously. Leo looked up at Phoebe.
" Not totally free…"
"What?!" she asked angrily, " What do you mean?" this time Cole answered.
" Well, the body's of the victims they found had no evidence on them whatsoever. Charlie pleaded not guilty, apparently he is the head of a large computer company. He's very rich and very powerful. He had donated to numerous charities, there are pages and pages of hospitals, homeless centers and orphanages who claim he has been nothing short of a saint to them…" Cole paused and looked at Phoebe, "The doctors at the hospital say you are mentally unstable and have had you on medication for some time now…they didn't count your testimony for evidence as result of this, they set him free, but they do have police on him 24 hours a day…"
" What? No way. They have bodies, they have got to have evidence. He never wore gloves for the whole time he was with me, he touched everything. Didn't they check the shack?"
"They searched for the shack for days. Phoebe, they said there isn't one, they said you're unstable…"
" What? How could they not find it? I was in it's god damn driveway when the trucker found me-"
"Trucker? Phoebe, you were found on the doorstep of the hospital unconscious. They assumed you had been left in a ditch or something.." Piper said confusedly.
"Phoebe don't worry, he's not coming back, we won't let him." Cole said, Leo nodded. Prue whispered something to Piper and piper nodded, looking at Phoebe as tears welled up in her eyes. Phoebe knew instantly what had been said.
"I'm not crazy!" she said desperately, with that, she ran towards the stairs and up to her room where she turned on every light possible and lay in her bed, crying softly.
* * *
Piper knocked on the door to Phoebe's room. There was no response she tried the handle but it was locked. "Phoebe?" she pointed a finger at the door, squinting, she emitted a small explosion that broke the lock. Smiling, she entered the room carrying a large tray with a bowl of chicken soup (Piper's specialty), a class of milk, crackers and toast.
"Hey sweetie." She said soothingly. She set the tray down on the nightstand. There was no reply, she nudged Phoebe lightly, but there was no response. "Phoebe, hunny get up, I brought you some soup." It was then that she noticed the bottle of aspirin on the nightstand, she picked it up and shook it, and it was empty. "That's strange, we just bought this today…" she looked down at Phoebe and was suddenly aware of her motionless body. "Phoebe?!" she put her hand in front of Phoebe's mouth to check for breathing, there was none.
"Leo!" she called, waiting for a few seconds then calling again, her eyes began to burn with tears. "Please don't let her be dead, please don't let her be- LEO!" there was a shivery blue light which was quickly replaced bye a somewhat annoyed Leo.
" Piper, you can't call me every time-" he looked at Piper's tear-stained face, then at the motionless body that was Phoebe. Without uttering a word he walked over to the bedside and waved his hands slowly over her limp body. She began breathing again, but her eyes didn't open.
"What happened?" he asked Piper worriedly. She brushed away the last of her tears before answering.
" She took it all, Leo." she said.
"Took what?"
"Leo, she almost died."
"She took what?" he asked again. Piper pointed at the empty bottle beside the bed. Leo seemed to have just registered what had happened. "you mean she tried to kill herself?"
"Uh huh." She said, "And I think she might try to again."
" What?" he asked shocked.
"She just might try again, that's all."
"Well we have to find out what made her do it the first time, Piper, this isn't good." Just then Phoebe woke up, looking around. She was confused for a split second before realizing what had happened. Sighing angrily she got up.
"There is a lock there for a reason Piper, I need to sleep, just like the rest of the world."
"Sleep?" Piper laughed sarcastically, then took on a note of anger. "Phoebe, what the hell did you think you were doing?"
"Huh?" she asked. Leo walked over to the nightstand and picked up the empty bottle of aspirin, walking over to stand in front of Phoebe.
"Phoebe what is this?" he asked sounding angrier than Piper.
"I had a headache." She said trying to push past him, he stepped in front of her again.
" Phoebe, what the hell are you doing?"
"I'm hungry."
" Don't play dumb, I mean what the hell are you doing taking the whole bottle of aspirin? What the hell are you doing trying to kill yourself?"
"The whole bottle?" she asked in genuine shock.
"Yes the whole bottle." Leo said in an annoyed voice.
"I honestly didn't know I took the whole thing." She said, "The last thing I remember was taking some aspirin and lying down, I might have just taken them all absent mindedly," she said, then turned angry, "You know, with all the things I have on my mind!?" she pushed Leo onto the ground and stormed out of the room, muttering something about : "a person can't make a mistake…"
Prue sat at the kitchen table drinking coffee, she had just entered the manor and was oblivious to what had just happened upstairs. Phoebe came rushing into the room, grabbing the keys to the car. "Hey Phoebes." Prue said, then looked up, realizing that Phoebe was crying. "Oh hunny, what's wrong?"
" Nothing." She replied before running out the back door. Prue ran after her, jumping into the car as Phoebe drove away. She shut the door quickly and looked at Phoebe forgetting to do up her seatbelt, obviously Phoebe had too.
"Phoebe, we have to talk…" just then, Piper and Leo orbed in, but Leo instantly orbed out again, leaving the sisters in the car.
"Phoebe, we have to talk…" Piper said in the same tone Prue had just used. Phoebe turned angrily to Piper who was in the backseat.
"NO I DIDN'T TRY TO KILL MYSELF AND NO I AM NOT SUICIDAL-"
"PHOEBE, THE ROAD!" Prue grabbed the steering wheel but it was too late, the car careened into the curb, flipping over and over, down a near bye ravine. The three girls lay motionless in the demolished car.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "up there" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
"But I have to get to them." Leo pleaded watching in horror as he observed the girls, "They're going to die." The elders simply shook they're heads. Leo took one last desperate look at them before orbing out to answer another charge's call.
End of part two.